Office Politics
by Royal Maiden
Summary: What's an IT Manager to do when the big boss appears to be a pigheaded sexist jerk? All's fare in Love and Office warfare. AU Pride and Prejudice.
1. Chapter 1

Ello ello this is my first ever Jane Austin fic.

I will admit that I wrote this fic to help me get my normal artwork out of the Regency style. So bare with me, it's been a while since I have written anything.

Anyways: I do not own the rights to Pride and Prejudice I am not even worthy of borrowing such amazing characters from Jane Austin.

If you notice any spelling or grammar errors please tell me. I have no beta and going over things yourself you are bound to miss things.

Also to see some art for this story, please see my Deviant art site: heavenlymaron dot deviantart dot com

Enjoy~

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The first thing that Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy noticed as he entered the Meryton branch of Debenshire Consulting was the laughter of a petite brunette in a charming charcoal grey skirt suit. The second thing he noticed was that the very same smiling brunette was entering the same elevator as him. "What floor?" he mumbled trying to keep his attention on the report he was previously reading for the better part of the morning.

"Five please." She turned and smiled to politely thank him before resuming her gaze to the dull metal doors of said elevator for a brief moment before giving into the urge of ridding this small moving steel prison of it's pregnant silence. "I'm sorry, I don't think we have met." Her denim blue eyes sparkled for a moment and extended her hand for a handshake. "Hi, I'm Elizabeth. How'd ya do?"

The young business man blankly starred at her for a moment before firmly shaking her hand. "William" he simply stated.

His demeanor seemed to bring out a playful look in her eyes "Well William," turning her attention to the chime of the elevator for a moment. "This is my stop; I hope to see you around sometime." She smiled before making her graceful exit out of the elevator.

The young chairman stood there dumbly watching the enchanting brunette through the closing elevator doors. "Probably someone's secretary, not worth my time." He assured himself, while waiting for the metal box to make it's way up to the top floor occasionally thinking of the bright blue eyes of a certain milk chocolate haired nobody before making the retreat to his new temporary office.

The light pitched chime of the elevator took Charlotte Lucas's attention the moment it rang. 'Mr. Bingly doesn't come in for another good 15-20 minutes and Mr. Darcy is not set to arrive until next Monday.' She mused. Quickly realizing it was the later of the two "Go-- Good morning Mr. Darcy, we were not expecting you until next week." The befuddled secretary rose to poor the boss a cup of coffee.

"The coffee will not be necessary Miss Lucas. Please tell Mr. Bingly that I would like to see him when he arrives. Until then I don't want to be disturbed." Darcy promptly walked into his office before shortly returning to the reception area. "Miss Lucas, would you care to explain to me why there is no computer in my office?" he glared at Mr. Bingly's poor assistant.

Charlotte softly gulped "The IT department are doing some updates to your system, sir. They'd said that it would only take a day or…"

"Unacceptable, I want their manager on my phone, now!" He seethed and stormed into his office.

"Mr. Darcy" Charlotte's nervous voice spoke over the intercom.

"Yes, Miss Lucas?" he sighed and released the intercom switch.

"I called down to the help desk and they said that Eliza was not in her office, I'm trying to call her cell now." The intercom replied.

"Good" Mr. Darcy snapped "Please tell Mr. Lieza or whatever his name is to get off of his bloody rear end and do the job my company pays him for. I want my computer hooked up and ready to go within the next thirty minutes, is that clear Miss Lucas?" Darcy fumed.

"Of all the…. **WHAT AN ASS!**" the speaker phone erupted.

"Lizzy!?" Charlotte jumped at the sudden outburst before quickly picking up her phone's receiver. "Why didn't you say something when you answered? How much did you here?"

"I did say hello, but apparently you didn't hear me over that pompous prick…" the female over the phone fumed.

"Now Lizzy…" Charlotte tried to calm her friend.

"Don't 'Now Lizzy' me Charlotte; I don't give a rat's ass who he is. First of all he called me lazy…" she started.

"He did not" Charlotte started.

"He implied it" the receiver shot back "Then there is the fact that he was talking down to you and then to add insult to injury he called me a **MAN!** A MAN! Charlotte! The sexiest bastard was not even scheduled to be here for a week!" the phone screeched.

"He didn't know any better, Lizzy. He hasn't met you…" Charlotte tried to play peacekeeper.

"It doesn't matter that we have not been properly introduced, he assumed." Charlotte could here her friend take a deep calming breath over the phone before continuing. "Char, tell that jerk I'll be up in less then 15 minutes." And with that the call ended.

When Lizzy entered her department's area her blue eyes were darken with anger. Her staff knew full well to keep her distance when she was like this. "Tom!" she snapped. "Get me one of the loaner laptops and a form !" she demanded. "Oh and Tom?" she paused to calm herself, "Please tell my 9:00 interview that I will be running a little late and please be a dear and inform me the moment that the install on Mr. Darcy's desktop is done, thanks. I got my cell if you need me." With that she marched herself to the elevator laptop in hand and hit the up button.

The elevator ride was all too short for Lizzy, before she knew it she was looking at the face of her best friend since childhood, Charlotte. "Char, please let his royal pain in the ass know I have arrived with, oh look 20 minutes to spare." Sarcasm dripping off each word.

"Now Lizzy, you're gonna get fired if you keep that up." Charlotte reprimanded.

"Don't worry I'll be civil. Now if you don't mind, I got actual work to do." Eliza rolled her eyes.

"He just called Bingly in; let me buzz before you waltz your way in, Lizzy." Charlotte softly pushed the intercom switch.

"…I don't care if she is your girlfriend's sister I am not doing it. The last thing I need to subject myself to is a blasted babbling school girl that doesn't know the difference between a portfolio and a typewriter" The intercom blared.

'Crap' Charlotte muttered under her breath while shaking her head 'That's the last thing Lizzy needed to hear after he's already pissed her off.' Preparing for the worst, "Um Mr. Darcy," Charlotte started.

"What is it?" the intercom raged.

Lizzy placed a hand over her friend's mouth and whispered what to say. "The IT Manager is here to see you now." Charlotte repeated nervously.

'Well send him in then! I don't have all day." Mr. Darcy sneered and Mr. Bingly paled.

'I swear I am gonna push him out of the window when no one is looking. Or hit him with my car.' Lizzy went over the possible ways she could harm the new pain of her existence without being caught; getting up to forty three different possibilities before opening the door.

"Uh Will, did I for get to mentioned that our IT Manager is Ja-.." Mr. Bingly nervously started, hoping that the person opening the door did not here the conversation that he and Darcy were in the middle of.

"That's at least three times I have been insulted in less then ten minutes." Lizzy counted on her fingers as she successfully cut Bingly off. "I must admit that's a record." She smiled cheekily before she looked over to the man behind the desk "You!?" her eyes popped out. 'Figures, it's just my luck to have the cute guy I met in the elevator to be a total dick.' She glowered.

"I do not think you're in the right place miss, please return to your desk I doubt your boss would be too happy with his secretary wandering about." Darcy coldly stated.

'Oh no he didn't.' Lizzy was using what self restraint to not tell the jerk off and then bitch slapping him for good measure. "Excuse me?" she raised her voice.

"Will, you didn't" Bingly slapped his forehead. "Lizzy's the…"

"Make that four times." She held up four fingers. "And since you do not know who I am allow me to properly introduce myself this time Mr. Darcy." She paused and put an obviously fake smile on her face." My name is Elizabeth Bennett and I happen to be in charge of the IT and Call Center departments here along with managing and maintaining the servers we house at this location and the one's located at our sister branch in Kent. Graduating with honors from Stanford University with a double major of Computer Science and English lit." Eliza took a moment to gauge the look on Darcy's face. "How do you do?" she smirked. "Now if you don't mind, I'll set you up with a loner machine, until I have finished configuring your machine, unless you would prefer to use a computer without an operating system?" she raised her eyebrow waiting for a response. "I didn't think so." She paused, "Now if you would be so kind as to fill out this form and step away from your desk while I set this laptop up. I need to get back to my interviews."

For the first time in a very long time one Fitzwilliam Darcy was at a lost on what to say. First thing was anger for the tone she dared to use on him, then offended at her for the way that she spoke, shortly after the shock of her duties and education, then finally the guilt of what he said about her. He sighed and walked around his desk snatching the form from Lizzy's hands. "Do you have a pen?" he stated lamely.

Elizabeth gracefully pulled the pen holding her makeshift bun into place causing her chestnut locks to fall down her back and handed it to Mr. Darcy before crawling under his desk to set up the laptop and the printer. 'So would have so rather done this when I was not in a skirt.' She paused to pull her skirt down. "Well Mr. Darcy, your all plugged in all you need to do is turn it on." she stood up and readjusted her skirt once more. "I will have your desktop set up before the day is out." She peeked over to the form. "You forgot to sign here." She pointed to the bottom of the form. "Thank you, here's your copy." Handing him a canary colored sheet of paper. "If you need anything please have Charlotte call down. Nice meeting you, if you would excuse me." Lizzy plastered her best fake smile back onto her face "Oh and Charlie," she turned her attention to Mr. Bingly "I'm sorry I am going to have to miss lunch with you and my sister today, I am gonna have to push back my conference call with Kent. Unfortunately since my interviews are now going over. Please tell Janie that I am sorry and that I'll make it up to her." With that she left the office.

Charlotte stood and shook her head at her best friend "Eliza, one of these days you are going to have to learn how to hold your tongue. It's got a bad way of getting you into trouble." She warned and Lizzy could not help but roll her eyes at this. "By the way my dear Lizzy, Happy Birthday"

"Whatever…" Miss Bennett smiled and half heartedly waved her hand as the doors to the elevator closed.


	2. Chapter 2

The rest of the morning was filled with one interview after another for Elizabeth. It wasn't that she disliked conducting interviews… it was just four hours of asking the same ten questions, getting slight variations on the same answers, and giving a rundown tour of the building was enough to drive anyone insane. Hell, she was almost happy to be going over the costs of the new server with Collins, well almost. On her list of least favorite things to do, willingly talking to Wilbur Collins had to be one of the top. For the life of her she could not figure out how someone so technologically illiterate could have the final say so in the Technology department's purchasing requests. It also didn't help that every time she was forced to interact with the man he tended to give her sickening sweet compliments, which was enough to make her feel like she needed to take a scalding hot shower to remove the grime-like feeling covering her skin. Elisabeth had considered filling a grievance with HR nearly on a bi-weekly basis, but she knew it would cause her more grief on getting the equipment that she needed then what it was worth getting him to stop. Elisabeth took a moment to clear her head before dialing the fool's phone number.

"Ah Miss Bennett, I was afraid that I would not be able to hear your lovely voice until the morrow." The voice from the speaker phone oozed.

She winced, 'Who talks like this anymore?' "Good afternoon Mr. Collin's, I apologize for pushing our meeting back, I had to se…" the IT manager started.

"No excuses are needed my dear Miss Bennett, you simply must learn better time management. As my esteemed colleague Ms. De Bough has stated…"

'Not another one of his long winded speeches about the Wicked Bitch of Kent's views on how properly run a department efficiently.' Lizzy's mentally groaned as she absent mindly started a tally for the numbers of times Collins was going to call her 'My dear Miss Bennett' in this conversation. The current high score was twenty seven and Lizzy didn't really wish to relive that conversation any time soon.

"To arrive on time is to be late, to arrive ten minutes early is to be on time…." The voice coming from the phone droned on and on.

'How long is he going to go on this time? I've got more important things to do then listen to this snooty little windbag go on about how wonderful the illustrious Ms. Katherine De Bough is and how 'accomplished' we all would be by listening to her helpful suggestions.' She glanced at her nails 'Man this nail polish looks like utter crap, what the hell was I thinking letting Kitty and Lydia do my nails? I should have known they'd use a color that screams 'Hi, my name is Bambi and I'm a slut', on me. They know that I hate these Barbie bubblegum pink colors. Hell, I would have been better off having Mary do my nails… Sure it would probably be something that the lead singer of My Chemical Romance would be sporting, but at least it would have had some sort of persona…'

"Don't you agree Miss Bennett?" the voice over the phone asked only to be greeted by silence. "Miss Bennett?" he attempted again. "Miss Bennett can you hear me?"

"Say wha a huh?" she awoke from her inner musings "Can you repeat the question? Our call's connection seemed to have crapped out for a minute." She fibbed. 'Please let him be dumb enough not to question it. Please let him be dumb enough not to question it, please, please, please.'

"My dear Miss Bennett there is no need to use such vulgar language. A lady as beautiful as you should never say words as ugly as that. " Elizabeth could almost imagine the sickenly sweet smile on the caller's face and marked another tally on the paper. "But I digress, such an unreliable contraption the telephone. It's nothing like a Blackberry. Now that is truly a marvel of modern day brilliance."

'This man is an idiot. Just keep your remarks to yourself, remember you need approval for that new server set up.' Elizabeth took a deep breath and repeated the mantra in her head. 'He's still going on about how wonderful his blackberry is. Should I tell him that it's still a phone? No, can't make him feel stupid. He's the one to sign the approval forms.' She shook her head, 'Hell he's still going on about the wonders of his Blackberry; God, I swear Collins must have been dropped on his head as a baby.' She sighed. 'This is gonna be a long painful day, I can just feel it.'

Darcy's right eye twitched as his dear, dear friend (as he reminded himself) Mr. Bingley paced back and forth through the raven haired executive's temporary office; mumbling on how his precious Jane is going to be so upset when he breaks the news that she wasn't going to be able to have the company of her sister at lunch. "I don't see what the big deal is, it's only lunch." Will shot an annoyed glance to his red headed colleague. "It is not like you can not simply reschedule the bloody thing."

Charles Bingley's pacing came to an unexpected halt at his friend's words. "Just a lunch?" his bright hazel eyes starred at his temperamental friend like said friend had grown a second head. "Just a lunch…" he repeated again, completely dumbfounded.

Darcy's already non existent patience was becoming thinner. "What are you going on about now Charles?" he exhaled in an annoyed manor "Yes Charles, it's just a lunch and not the end of the world." He snapped.

"Jesus Christ all mighty Will, didn't you hear a word I said this morning?" Bingley stared at his counterpart in utter shock "What bug decided to craw up your ass lately?!" Bingley exclaimed "Ever since you came back from that trip to Ramsgate, you've been like… like" Charles struggled to find the right words to finish his sentence but sighed in defeat before starting again. "Will you've been so closed off, much more so then what you are normally. What's wrong? I've never seen you degrade anyone like you just did to Lizzy, and you hadn't even met her, yet." He sighed again "You can tell me Will, you know whatever it is will stay just between you and me."

"I don't want to talk about it right now, Charles. But thank you."

Charles Bingley sighed for what seemed like the five thousandth time today (not that he was counting) as he dialed his beloved girlfriend's cell. "Hello Jane?" he paused to gain the courage to spill the news. "Lizzy asked me to tell you that she won't be able to make it for lunch…" Charlie winced when he heard his beloved girlfriend's disappointment.

Charles was silent as listen to his lady love trying to reassure him that she understood if her sister said that she would not be able to take time out to go out for lunch that she must have been in the middle of something important. After all Lizzy always did have a habit of putting the needs of others above her own. "Janie?" Bingley suddenly had a stroke of inspiration. "I got an idea; how about before the party tonight we take Lizzy out for dinner. Surely your family won't mind too much, would they?" he smiled at his angel's response. "Excellent, would it be ok if I drag Darcy with us? He arrived early and call me a softy but I couldn't just leave him to mope around in a hotel room all night." An impish grin spread across Charles's lips shortly after he heard his beloved angel's answer.

By the time they got to the reason of her conference call, one Elizabeth Bennett was wishing that she didn't cancel lunch with her sister. Hell, she admitted to herself after the second 'My dear Miss Bennett' she was wishing that she was anywhere but stuck on the phone with Wilbur Collins even willingly listening to one of her mother's many rants about how she should have chosen a more feminine profession… 'Well maybe not that.' She mused as she remembered her mother's last attempt of persuading her to take up an oh so promising carrier as a bikini waxer.

"Eliza?" Thomas poked his head into his supervisor's office.

"Mr. Collins, can you hold for a moment? Thank you." she placed the phone on hold before the other side of the phone had a chance to protest. She took a moment to stretch, before turning her attention to the person leaning on the door frame. "What's up Tom?" she eagerly smiled.

"That bad?" the tech half heartedly smothered a rather undignified snort at his boss's all too well known 'are you kidding me' look. "Anyways, Bond girl is on line two and you wanted me to let you know when the install was done." He paused for dramatic effect. "Well, it's done."

Elizabeth took a moment to shake her head in disbelief at her head at her 'quirky little henchman' (as she dubbed him). "Thank you Tom, tell Janie that I'll be with her in a minute." As she took the phone off of hold. "Mr. Collins, I'm afraid I must cut our meeting short. There's something that needs my immediate attention. I hope you understand." She fibbed again.

"Not at all, Miss Bennett. I shall count days until our next rendezvous." Lizzy shuttered at the speaker phone's response. "Farewell my dear Miss Bennett."

"Goodbye Mr. Collins." She immediately clicked to line two. "Janie! Have I mentioned how much I love you today?" Elizabeth beamed.

"Mr. Collins again, eh?" the speaker giggled.

"Am I that obvious?" Elizabeth replied in mock horror.

"No not at all 'my dear Miss Bennett." The phone receiver jokingly replied.

The younger of the two sisters glared at the phone, hopping that the person on the other end would feel her annoyance through the phone line. "I should have never told you about that." She grumbled, causing the older of the two to laugh harder.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Jane attempted to calm her giggles. "I called to invite you to dinner and drinks before the family party tonight. Are you up to it?"

"After the day I've been having, **YUS!**" the younger sister exclaimed.

"That bad?" Jane asked letting concern for her younger sister come through her voice.

"That bad… I'll tell you all about it tonight." Lizzy massaged her temple. "Jane my love, I hate to do this but I got to go… You know the drill things to do, worlds to take over and remake in my image."

"Heh, I'll see you later then. Don't forget dinner I'll meet you at the Magic Time Machine at six, and you better be there all miss high and mighty birthday girl." The phone teased.

"Yah yah yah, I heard you. Six o'clock, Time Machine… I got it." Lizzy repeated mumbling something about bossy older sisters under her breath before hanging up the phone and calling up to Charlotte to make sure that the 'prick' knows that she was on her way to set up his computer. To her relief the 'prick' was in meeting. 'Thank heaven for small favors.'

The first thing one Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy saw when he opened the door to his office was the rather attractive backside of the buildings IT Manager under his desk, humming to herself. Now Mr. Darcy wasn't one to normally gape at a physical attributes of the opposite sex, far from it actually. But for reasons beyond him he could not turn away. Was it the fact that she was on her hands and knees under _his_ desk, or the fact that her grey skirt had ridden up a good four inches then what it was supposed to be, or the fact that he was slightly attracted to her, or a combination of the above? Whatever the reasoning was, he was having a bit of a problem of pulling his eyes away from the attributes of the lady before him. It took a few moments for him to pull what little self control he had over himself at the moment together "Um, excuse me?" he winced as the woman on all uttered a rather impressive string of curse words under her breath as she rubbed her head where she hit it on his desk. 'Rather colorful vocabulary she has there.' Somewhere in the back of his mind mused.

"Mr. Darcy?!" she scrambled out from under the desk hoping he did not notice the embracement coloring her cheeks as she struggled to come up with a coherent sentence with no help from her aching head. "I was just finishing up. Your system is ready to go." She rushed the last sentence out. "I'll be leaving now." Elizabeth all but ran out of the door so she could keep what little dignity she had at the moment. 'Nothing like hitting your head and cursing like a sailor in front of the big boss especially after all but putting them in their place this morning. Just shoot me now.'

Mr. Darcy was still rooted in the same place with the look of complete puzzlement smeared across his features when Charles came bounding into his office to declare that he was going out to eat dinner with him and Jane with no ands ifs or buts about it. 'What the bloody hell just happened?' he asked himself.

The saying of 'A fish out of water' was at this moment not lost on one Mr. Darcy as his eyes wondered from the mismatched furniture, the wait staff in various costumes, to the menu that listed things from 'The Roman Orgy' to 'Mad Hatter's Tea'. Of all the places that Charles has dragged him to, this with out a doubt had to be one of the oddest places that he had ever seen. His inner musings about his friend's taste in dinning was cut short when the same friend started to wave his hands up in the air like a madman to get the blonde in the green turtleneck's attention. "Jane, Janie dear over here!" Bingley beamed.

'It's official, poor Bingley's lost his mind.' Darcy rolled his eyes at his friend's embarrassing display. To his relief or horror it appeared that he was not the only one embarrassed by his friend's actions judging by the soft blush covering the cheeks of whom Darcy can figure out must be Bingley's Jane. He took a moment to study the fair haired lady and he could now honestly understand why people had the habit of calling her an angel with her soft golden hair pulled into a simple bun to her kind blue eyes. Bingley's Jane did appear to be a Roman Goddess statue that had come to life. He stood as she was introduced and returned her pleasant greetings before returning to his chair. Darcy had to admit to himself she seemed nice enough but for the life of him he could not understand why his red headed pal was acting like a love stuck fool… strike that he remembered who he was pondering and if there was one thing that Will Darcy knew about his friend was that Charles had a habit of falling head over heels in love with a pretty face. 'Typical Charles.' He sighed deeply.

Everyone was well into their second drink by the time the missing member of the party finally made it to the restaurant and the happy couple was trying to figure out who's expression was more shocked the raven haired C.E.O. or the brunette little sister. To the relief of one Charley Bingley neither one of the shocked duo seemed to show any indication of the earlier introduction that they had some ten hours before. Lizzy joked as normal and Will well Will was his normal shy quiet self.

Dinner passed with a few rather awkward incidents for Darcy. His first mistake was asking the waiter where the restroom was and then had the 'fun' of a rather obnoxious waiter dressed as Harry Potter announce that he needed to use the loo while leaded him to it. The second mistake of the evening was allowing Bingley order the same drink as the younger Bennett sister, but how would he know that an Ugly Magic Potion would have enough alcohol in it to make a horse keel over and Bingley, poor Bingley who was attracted to the glowing dry ice mist of the beverage and had little to no tolerance for hard liquor started to giggle like a school girl at the littlest things. After hearing the impressive list of hard alcohol he assumed that Elizabeth Bennett had the liquor tolerance of a pirate. At this point one Fitzwilliam Darcy was wondering how else this night could turn out to be any more awkward well, that is, until Harry Potter and the rest of the costume waiters gathered around the younger of the two Bennett sisters and then started to sing 'Happy Birthday'. Needless to say that at that precise moment of time one Will Darcy was hoping the floor would open him up and swallow him whole.

**Author's Notes:**

First and foremost, I want to thank you guys for the kind reviews. I am glad you guys enjoy this story.

As for the not so kind reviews that I received. Thank you for giving your time to read the chapter and commenting. I am however, well aware that my writing skills are not the best. As I have stated before I am an artist and not a writer. The written word and me do not have the best relationship, but I write for me and no one else. If you do not like my writing do not read it. I will take your critique and attempt to better my skills but other then that, it's no skin off of my nose if you do not continue reading my stories.

This chapter went through a few (six or seven) rewrites until I got it to a point that I wanted it. I debated on having Bingley spilling the beans about Lizzy birthday to Darcy sooner but resisted along with a few more twist and turns. The fun of the Bennett family will be soon I promise. I can not say when, but as soon as I am pleased with how the chapter written it will be posted.

Also, for the people who are wondering how in the world I came up with The Magic Time Machine restaurant it's a real place in the Dallas area. The waiters dress up as various Movie characters, the menu is filled with oddly named (and delicious foods), no two rooms are designed the same, and the waiters will yell at the top of their lungs to let everyone know that you have to go to the restroom if you ask them where it is.


	3. Chapter 3: Grease coved Goddesses

As the car carrying the eldest Bennett sister, a slightly tipsy Charles Bingley, and a very irritable Fitzwilliam Darcy pulled into the Meriton Family Fun Center; Darcy was sure that Charles was trying to punish him, for what he did not know but it had to be for something iniquitous indeed. First with dinner at that ridiculous restaurant and now with the loud noises of a bowl-o-rama/laser tag place Darcy was not sure on how much more he could take.

The normally major pushover Charlie Bingley had decided to hold hostage Darcy's hotel key along with the rest of the contents of his wallet under the pretence that Darcy would not need it and then Bingley actually had the cheek to suggest that if his good ol' friend wanted to call it a night he could just give a call to Carolyn and have her take him to Bingley's condo until Bingley was ready to call it a night. Because we all know that she would be willing to offer her umm… services to Darcy if he wanted them or not. Just the thought of being in the same car let alone same room with that clingy orange squid caused a cold shiver down Darcy's spine. Needless to say Darcy did not like the intoxicated Bingley one bit.

"You're fired, you realize." Darcy darkly muttered to his hyperactive companion. But as usual Bingley laughed it off. "I mean it this time Charles, tomorrow pack up your office and don't bother returning." The C.E.O. pulled his arm away from Bingley.

"Sure you do Darcy ol' buddy ol' pal of mine, just like the last time and the time before that and the time before that." Bingley replied in a sing-song voice "Now come on Darce, you need to lighten up. Come play a round of pool or darts with me, I promise that your reputation of being a wet blanket won't be too tarnished if you do." Bingley teased. Darcy just pinched the bridge of his noise and point blank told Bingley to go run off with his angelic girlfriend and leave him in peace at the bar until it was time to go.

"You know I am still not gonna give your wallet back, mate." Charles smiled.

'Damn'

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The moment that Elizabeth walked pass the bar and lounge area of the fun center she was instantly scooped up in the waiting arms of her father. Now if this was anyone else then the man that knew how his little girl's brain worked he would have been doubled over clutching a newly throbbing part of his male anatomy. Of course there were some days he cursed Sandra Bullock and her beauty queen movie for that little trick when he was not fast enough to dodge his favorite daughter's hand. "Dad! You know better then to do that." Her eyes blazed for a moment before enveloping the man in a tight bear hug. "I've missed you." She grinned "How has life been treating you these past couple weeks? You crazy old man."

Thomas Bennett smirked at his daughter's words and stated that life has indeed been treating him well even if her mother or step mother as Lizzy corrected him has not signed the divorce papers yet and he stressed the yet part. To this Lizzy did a pretty spot on impression of her step mother complaining about her poor nerves and how she will never be able to show her face in good society if she got a divorce.

"Really father, why on earth did you marry the woman and father two demonic spawn with her? The woman is completely ridiculous." Lizzy let out an exasperated sigh.

Her father reminded her that before she could start with that rant **again** that what choice did he have being a widow with two toddlers and a new born with no one to take care of them. Lizzy at this juncture thought it would be best not to point out that she and Jane spent most of the first five years of their lives after their mother's death with her uncle and aunt on their mother's side. Franny Phillips-Bennett loved the idea of having the new born around because she could just pass Mary off as her own but Jane and Elizabeth were too old to try that ploy at least until grade school. By that time people would just think that they had been married longer then what they had. The last thing Franny wanted was the world to know that her husband was married before. Elizabeth never did get the logic behind it but then again, when did she ever get Franny's logic.

In Elizabeth's early years she tried to win Franny's love but as she grew she knew it was pointless. Elizabeth unfortunately looked too much like her birth mother and nothing like her father so there was no way that she could try and pass the girl off as her own like she did with Mary and Jane who blessedly as Franny often pointed out had their father's pale Irish completion unlike Elizabeth and her light coppery complexion that she inherited from her mother's side of the family even though Elizabeth and her full sisters were only a quarter Native American. But the lack acknowledgement did not deter Elizabeth from attempting to gain her step mother's love until she heard that woman dare to utter racist remark about her birth mother's roots **her roots** right in front of her that made Elizabeth realize that she wanted nothing to do with the ridiculous woman.

"By the way father of mine" she said in her all-knowing voice "Who let the evil step mother plan the party?" Elizabeth threw her thumb over her shoulder to point at the loud woman as they made their way to the bar to order a round of drinks to themselves.

"You know how much Jane is a pushover" Thomas Bennett started taking his seat.

"Yes, our darling pushover Jane she can see the good intentions in anyone I don't understand how but she can." Lizzy sighed copying her father's motions. "Do you think she's gonna try to play the part of mother of the year again?" she shot her father an amused look.

"Doesn't she always?" he cracked a teasing smile causing both of them erupt in a fit of laughter and clanked their glasses together.

Darcy watched the interaction of the Meriton branch's IT Manager and the elderly man with slight interest, catching bits and pieces of the conversation. From what he gathered is that she thought her mother was evil and that the man was her father. He was beginning to wonder why he was even trying to make out the conversation in the first place. He chalked it up to boredom and left it at that. The last thing he wanted to think about is some cheeky employee and her family issues. No matter how fascinating her blue to lilac eyes were.

Darcy's musings on what was the exact shade of Miss Bennett's eyes were interrupted by the same Miss Bennett's loud annoyed reaction to her phone. From what he could tell she wasn't too happy about something and had to leave the lounge area with the phone still at her ear. He caught the words of "How long" and "on my way" from her conversation. Needless to say his curiosity in the woman's conversation was somewhat peaked as he somewhat tailed her out of the lounge.

Lizzy made a v-line straight to the announcer's booth and requested that they would have a list of about seven or eight people meet her there. Darcy walked up behind Charles and Jane as the couple made their way to the second Bennett child. "Jane, Charlie good." The brunette nodded and glanced to the clock on her phone. "Charlie the whole building has had a power outage and the sever power backup won't come on. I need you too to inform my minions when they get their sorry asses over here to meet me on the server room, except Denny I want him to be in the office fully rested first thing in the morning. I need at least one tech fully operational tomorrow morning. If they don't show up here in five minutes, page them again. They're probably in the middle of a round of Laser Tag, the lucky bastards." Elizabeth turned her attention to her sister. "Janie I need you to go to my apartment walk and feed Isis. Pull a suit out for me to wear tomorrow and bring to me on your way to work in the morning. You know the drill give me a call when you are pulling into the parking lot. I'll meet you outside to get it. Oh and preferably one with pants this time. Last thing I need is to crawl under any more desks in a skirt." She motioned to the skirt that she was wearing "Also be a dear and tell everyone that I'm sorry I had to leave and I really appreciate the party. Oh and if the step mother has any issues about it, tell her to kindly stuff it wear the sun don't shine. I don't have time for her pettiness right now." She looked into Charles and then Jane's eyes to make sure that at least one of the two understood her instructions. "I'll call you later Janie." Elizabeth gave her older sister a quick hung and told her that she was a life savior before Darcy's raven hair caught the corner of her eye, Elizabeth turned to the raven haired C.E.O. "Have fun at the party." She winked and with that she was out the door and into her car before he had time form a reply.

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After a brief layover at Elizabeth Bennett's apartment to walk a delightful five or six month old Australian Sheppard pup, a slight detour to let Bingley's dinner resurface again, and a pit stop at the local connivance store to pick up a bottle of Gator-Aid for Bingley; Darcy finally made it into the comfort of his hotel suite. Sleep however, decided like it has been since the trip to Ramsgate that it wanted nothing to do with the green eyed man.

After a couple hours of staring at the ceiling followed by a short marathon of re-runs of 'I Love Lucy' Darcy decided to shake off all ideas of having a good night sleep or even any sleep for that matter and started to prepare for an early morning at the branch office. If he could not sleep he might as well do something more productive then watch late night TV, he thought will at the same time cursing the fact that Charles had actually talked him into leaving his briefcase in the office.

After a shower, shave, and Starbucks Darcy entered the lobby of the Branch. "And here I thought I was the only one crazy enough to be here willingly at five forty-five in the morning." the petite IT Manager removed an ear bud from her ear her eyes never leaving her laptop screen. "Tell me Mr. Darcy," she typed a few keys on the keyboard never looking away from the monitor "what brings you to the office at this early hour?"

Darcy dumbly muttered something about leaving his briefcase in the office as he took in the sight before him. There on the floor without a care in the world sat one dirt covered barefooted and torn jean clad Elizabeth Bennett working on her computer and listening to who knows what. "What on earth are you doing on the floor?" he looked at her quizzically.

"Doing random quality checks as I wait for the blasted server technician to get here from Surry. What else would I be doing here at five a.m.?" She answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world while she adjusted the placement of her glasses.

"You wear glasses?" Darcy mental berated himself for such a dumb question.

"Yes, when I need to read I need them or else I'll be squinting trying to make out a bunch of squiggly lines. She smiled at him as though he lost his mind. 'Thanks for noticing, Captain Obvious.' She mentally added.

"Why are you covered in grease?" the words stumbled out of his mouth before he realized it.

"The crawl space under the floor boards isn't the cleanest area in the building Mr. Darcy." She sighed as she looked at his puzzled expression. "Had to check to be sure that the wiring wasn't melted or been severed." She mentally rolled her eyes at the C.E.O.'s still dumbfounded face. "None of my boys can squeeze into the shoe box under the server racks." She explained rather slowly and watched the mental light bulb come on above his head. 'Not too bright in the morning, is he?'

"Then why are you waiting for a technician then?" he wondered why she didn't just fix the bloody thing herself, since she is apparently the technological super woman at least by the way that Charles raved about her she was.

"I'd fix it myself but, I would rather not void the warrantee on a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar piece of equipment." She gave him a challenging smirk, almost daring him to find a way to put her knowledge down. She didn't spend most of her adult life living off of studying and caffeine for nothing. "…and since I am salary unlike my team, you can work me until I die and not have to pay for one cent of overtime." She added in a slightly condescending tone before muttering something under her breath about how Collins and De Bough would chew her hide out again if they had to pay overtime to anyone in her department.

"Have you been here all night?" his eyes nearly popped from their sockets when she nodded and acted like it was no big deal. "Are you going home after the technician leaves?" to his astonishment she shook her head. "Why on Earth not?" Darcy couldn't help being shocked.

She tapped her chin thoughtfully while opening her calendar book "Let's see here shall we….interviews for the expansion of the call center from nine until noon, a follow up call with Collins at two, performance reviews from three till five… Busy, busy, busy..." she sighed and glanced at her cell phone. 'Where the hell is that tech, it doesn't take six hours to get here from Surry. I would like to get this done and over with so I can take a quick nap before having to be all Miss Sunshine and Lollypops and Mr. Tall, Dark, and Jackass is doing nothing to improve my mood' Lizzy took a quick look to see if Darcy had took her subtle hint that the conversation was over and she wanted him to leave her in peace. 'He's been doing nothing but staring at me for the last what twenty minutes? Thirty minutes? Is my greasy person mucking up his precious hallway or something? Go away far away, leave and let this little peon get back to her work.' She mentally chanted until he finally muttered something about the time and went up stairs finally. About a good fifteen minutes later both Denny and Jane arrived.

At this point that Jane was handing her sister a travel bag and shoes Elizabeth was catching Denny up with what was going on as they walked up the steps of the building. She paused to thank her sister and informed Denny that she would be upstairs removing the grease from her person. By the time she was out of the shower she was relaxed and refreshed that was until she opened her travel bag. "What the hell was Janie thinking when she chose white?" she grumbled when she saw the white slacks, a short white tailored jacket, long black empire waist blouse with white trim, and jewelry to match. By this point there was really nothing she could do about it. The suit that she wore yesterday was a bit wrinkled to put it nicely and she really didn't have the time to go back home since the blasted tech had yet to make an appearance. Lizzy just prayed that she would not get anything on it.

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Darcy's morning went rather smoothly after his hastily retreat from the lobby, that is until Bingley arrived at the office with a condescending Carolyn in tow. Darcy swore he could hear her belittling Charles from the moment the elevator opened if not before that. God, how that woman annoyed him with her shrew-like shrieking and her obsession with him and wearing the color orange.

"I saw pictures of last night on your Facebook Charles, how dare you not tell me that Darcy is in town." Carolyn's voice reached a new level of loud as she droned on and on about how Bingley should have invited Darcy to stay with them and how insensitive Bingley was being to their dear friend's needs.

'More like your needs, you orange twit.' Darcy's mind replied. 'Oh please don't let her realize that I am in the office.' He mentally chanted. 'Make her leave already.'

"Carolyn, nobody expected Darcy to come in until next Monday." Bingley hoped that his sister would understand "how about coming back for lunch and we can all go out somewhere nice?"

'When did Charles learn to handle his sister?' Darcy wondered. 'Did he just commit me to lunch with the woman?' he felt a headache coming on.

Darcy waited in uncomfortable silence for the elevator to open and close before daring to venture outside his office over into Bingley's. "What's this I hear about Facebook?" Charles nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard his friend's voice.

"Don't do that!" Bingley grasped his heart. "You nearly gave me a heart attack." Darcy nearly laughed at his friend's over dramatics and asked again about what Carolyn was saying about pictures on Facebook. "Oh um, Jane tagged me with the photos she took last night at the restaurant and a couple had you in them." Bingley meekly replied and Darcy absentmindedly nodded in response.

A few moments later Bingley and Darcy's conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door and an Elizabeth Bennett peaking her head inside. "I'm sorry, I didn't know I was interrupting anything." She apologized.

"Don't apologize Lizzy, come in come in. You know my door is open to you any time." Bingley motioned her to come into the room "So…. What's up?" Charles's face beamed.

Darcy's heart nearly stopped when he saw the vision in white entered. He had a hard time believing that this was the same woman that only a couple hours before hand was covered head to toe in grease. He knew the girl was attractive, you would have to be a blind man not to know that but the way his body was reacting to her was simply absurd. He was sure it had something to do with the lack of sleep. There was no way he could be attracted to her. No way, he told himself. He had to get out of the room and get out of it quick. The longer he was around her the more this unknown feeling would surface and Darcy did not like what he could not explain. He quickly excused himself and returned to the sanctity of his office.

Elizabeth paid no mind to the retreating man and informed Bingley that everything was up and running again. Bingley was rather surprised that he was not aware that anything was down but to this Elizabeth reminded him of how much he had to drink the night before. The two laughed Bingley's drunken antics off and soon the conversation turned to Carolyn and that Lizzy heard her all the way down in the server room. She even joked on how the server room was supposedly made to be sound proofed and she guessed she should have requested it to be made Carolyn proofed. To this Bingley laughed and agreed that Carolyn could break glass with the high pitched sounds that came out of her mouth. All joking aside Charlie enjoyed talking with Elizabeth she did have a way of speaking her mind without and couldn't care less on how people would react to it. Charlie had to admit that even if he wasn't dating her sister, Lizzy would definitely be one of his best friends.

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That night Darcy didn't know when or how he even got to Elizabeth Bennett's Facebook profile page, nor did he care at this point. All he knew is that he wanted to find out as much as he could about Elizabeth Bennett and couldn't help himself from smiling at the picture of said female's profile picture. There she was looking like she just came out of paintball World War Three with a playful smile on her face. Darcy admitted to himself that there was far much more to Elizabeth Bennett then what met the eye as he fell into a calm sleep. And for once he did not awaken in the middle of the night to the same nightmare that has been plaguing him for the past few months.

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**Author's notes:**

Woo! Finally finished writing this chapter. –Does a happy dance- I'll be frank and tell you that I had no idea where I was going with this chapter. The coming to visit a sick sister some how became a sick server, and somehow Darcy developed sleeping problems. Those were not planned and just sort of happened when I sat down to write this chapter.

You got to love the random muses.

I hope to get the next chapter up sooner then this one, but I make no promises since I do most of my writing during the down time at work so I have to conform around my work load.

Once again I would like to thank my reviewers and watchers you guys rock. Pure and simple.


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